Monday, 29 February 2016

A fascination with the border came naturally to Inge Morath who was born in Graz, the frontier city of southern Austria facing the Southeast. Her mother's family had homes and property in Lower Styria, what is Slovenia today. A child of Germanic culture it might be said that a kind of border ran through Mathilda, Inge's mother, who had a particular understanding of the Slavic people who bordered Austria.

For Inge the concept of the border between cultures and races was essential to the understanding of peoples. Raised under Nazism with its manic super nationalistic credo, resistence to the current tendency to characterize individuals according to their origins rather than as human persons was something to be resisted. It was not that she was blind to the impress of culture on individuals, however, quite the opposite - through travel and study and her mastery of languages she could not help but take culture and history into account in all her approaches to different people. What her historical perspective gave her was a profound respect for differences and for individuals and their cultures.

Inge of course could not help but understand that there are indeed good and retrograde cultural traits imbedded in national characteristics. With the end of World War II she could not wait to escape Germany and Austria and to find a way to live in France, which became her second birthplace. French culture, I think, was her favorite of all, but saying this I am instantly reminded of how she adored a certain spiritual stretch in the Russian mentality, the familial warmth of the Italian, the venerable self-security of the Chinese, the poetry and literature and painting of the Germans, the Spanish austerity and the breadth of the English literary embrace. In short, she was in actuality a citizen of the world, with a closer affinity to more aspects of world culture than anyone I have ever encountered.
(...)

In the idea of the border she seemed to have found the complexity of her own existence. The border is the end of something and also the beginning, the escape and the entry, the desire to forget and the need to remember. Inge was torn by these contradictory forces. She could bridle at the spineless obedience inherent in the militaristic side of Germany's culture, and a moment later defend Germany's art and poetry; in the end what she could not help rising to defend was human dignitiy and freedom, regardless of national context. As a photographer she worked alongside and had many close friends who were Jews, and indeed married one, but she could not forget what had moved her in Arab and Muslim culture and refused to demonize those people. Inge was a woman without demons.
(...)

Friday, 26 February 2016

"The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion."Doris Lessing

Doris May Lessing (1919-2013), born Doris May Tayler in Kermanshah, Iran, was a British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007 - the eleventh woman and the oldest person (88 years and 52 days) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. In awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy described her as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"(via).
In "The Golden Notebook" (1962), Lessing describes Anna Wulf's strive for honesty freedom from "the chaos, emotional numbness, and hypocriscy afflicting her generation", she "tries to live with the freedom of a man". Lessing was attacked for being "unfeminine" in the weay she depicts female anger and aggression. Her response: "Apparently what many women were thinking, feeling, experiencing came as a great surprise." "These attitudes in male writers were taken for granted, accepted as sound philosophical bases, as quite normal, certainly not as woman-hating, aggressive, or neurotic."(via)

Wednesday, 24 February 2016

Cheerleaders can be male or female; professional cheerleading, however, is still rigidly feminised. Some describe female cheerleaders' main task as providing "support for male athletes and voyouristic interest for a male audience" while male cheerleaders contribute in strength in stunts. This "sexual division of labor in cheerleading", as Laurel Davis puts it, "reinforces traditional gender beliefs, including notions of men's natural physcial superiority". Others argue that female cheerleaders "perform the same demanding stunts without male assistance" (Hanson, 1995).

"The reputation of having been a valiant 'cheer-leader' is one of the most valuable things a boy can take away from college." The Nation, 1911

Interestingly, cheerleading started out as a boys' club as it was considered to be too masculine for girls. Johnny Campbell, a University of Minnesota student, is said to have been the first cheerleader in 1899. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan carried on his legacy, all of them cheerleaders. In the 1920s, the inclusion of female cheerleaders started until in the 1960s it became female-dominated (via).

"We are constantly being asked if we are gay."Max, Vienna Fearleaders (his girl friend is a member of the Vienna Rollergirls)

"As long as what we do raises questions, we need to continue."Jakob, Vienna Fearleaders

The Vienna Fearleaders are the official cheerleading/fearleading squad of the Vienna Rollergirls. Both the Fearleaders and the Rollergirls have fun switching and playing with stereotypical gender roles: Women in full-contact sport and their male cheerleaders who publish a "Fearelly Calendar" every year (via and via). A unique, marvellous and hilarious combination.

Tuesday, 23 February 2016

"(...) history cannot ignore W.E.B. DuBois because history has to reflect truth and Dr. DuBois was a tireless explorer and a gifted discoverer of social truths. His singular greatness lay in his quest for truth about his own people. There were very few scholars who concerned themselves with honest study of the black man and he sought to fill this immense void. The degree to which he succeeded disclosed the great dimensions of the man."Martin Luther King"An American, a Negro... two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."W.E.B. DuBois

"In my own country for nearly a century I have been nothing but a NIGGER."W.E.B. DuBois

"To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships."W.E.B. DuBois"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line."W.E.B. DuBois

William Edward Burghardt DuBois (1886-1963) was born on 23 February 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, at a time the town with about 5.000 inhabitants had between 25 and 50 black people. At high school he showed concern for the development of black people and reflected upon their need to politicise themselves when he became the local correspondent for the New York globe at age fifteen. After graduating from high school, DuBois went to Fisk College (now University) in Nashville, Tennessee. In the south he "saw discrimination in ways he never dreamed of". He was even more determined to support the emancipation of his people as a writer, an editor, an impassioned orator.
After Fisk, DuBois entered Harvard via scholarships where he completed his master's degree and went to the University of Berlin for his doctor's degree. One semester before finishing his degree, however, he had to go back to Harvard because his education was regarded as "unsuitable for the type of work needed to help Negroes" and was hence no longer funded.
DuBois taught in Ohio for two years before accepting a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania where he conducted a research project in the city's slums.

"It revealed the Negro group as a symptom, not a cause; as a striving, palpitating group, and not an inert, sick body of crime; as a long historic development and not a transient occurrence."

It was the first time social phenomena were studied with a scientific approach, DuBois became "the father of Social Science".

After completing the study, he went to Atlanta University for thirteen years where he continued studying blacks. DuBois was the editor-in-chief of the Crisis for about 25 years; a magazine distributing NAACP policy. All his life, he was a highly active civil rights activist.
W.E.B. DuBois moved to Africa and became a Ghanian citizen in the final months of his life. He passed away on 27 August 1963, on the eve of the March On Washington.

In 1914, his daughter Yolande (1900-1961) left home to study at Bedales School in England. Soon after herr arrival, W.E.B. DuBois sent her this letter:

New York, October 29, 1914Dear Little Daughter:
I have waited for you to get well settled before writing. By this time I hope some of the strangeness has worn off and that my little girl is working hard and regularly.
Of course, everything is new and unusual. You miss the newness and smartness of America. Gradually, however, you are going to sense the beauty of the old world: its calm and eternity and you will grow to love it.
Above all remember, dear, that you have a great opportunity. You are in one of the world’s best schools, in one of the world’s greatest modern empires. Millions of boys and girls all over this world would give almost anything they possess to be where you are. You are there by no desert or merit of yours, but only by lucky chance.
Deserve it, then. Study, do your work. Be honest, frank and fearless and get some grasp of the real values of life. You will meet, of course, curious little annoyances. People will wonder at your dear brown and the sweet crinkley hair. But that simply is of no importance and will soon be forgotten. Remember that most folk laugh at anything unusual, whether it is beautiful, fine or not. You, however, must not laugh at yourself. You must know that brown is as pretty as white or prettier and crinkley hair as straight even though it is harder to comb. The main thing is the YOU beneath the clothes and skin—the ability to do, the will to conquer, the determination to understand and know this great, wonderful, curious world. Don’t shrink from new experiences and custom. Take the cold bath bravely. Enter into the spirit of your big bed-room. Enjoy what is and not pine for what is not. Read some good, heavy, serious books just for discipline: Take yourself in hand and master yourself. Make yourself do unpleasant things, so as to gain the upper hand of your soul.
Above all remember: your father loves you and believes in you and expects you to be a wonderful woman.
I shall write each week and expect a weekly letter from you.
Lovingly yours,
Papa
(via Letters of Note)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -"The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression."W.E.B. DuBoisphotographs via and via

Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Elvis Presley is waiting for his bacon and eggs at a segregated lunch counter in Tennessee sometime in 1956. A woman is waiting for her sandwich - standing. She is not permitted to sit.

In 1962, the desegregation of 29 department store restaurants in Tennessee were tested, many of them were still refusing service to black customers. Tennessee law allowed restaurants and hotels to exclude persons "for any reason whatsoever" (Lovett, 2005).

Tuesday, 16 February 2016

A great many companies have mission statements and diversity programmes. Some have them because they are expected so. Others because they sound good. Or because they protect them when there are allegations of discrimination in court (see). Or because they contribute to a sense of identity companies without a specific company culture were lacking before. In this case, "We have diversity management" only serves as a superficial label without real - without honest - commitment. And it can only last until a new slogan creating identity is found that sounds impressive and underlines the company's image of taking over social responsibility.

According to an article found in the Harvard Business Review, diversity policies do not automatically make companies fairer for women and minorities. The presence of a diversity policy tends to make people discount claims of unfair treatment. This is particularly true for those of so-called dominant groups ("white men") who even may end up believing that they themselves are being treated unfairly because of diversity policies.

"Compared to white men interviewing at the company that did not mention diversity, white men interviewing for the pro-diversity company expected more unfair treatment and discrimination against whites. They also performed more poorly in the job interview, as judged by independent raters. And their cardiovascular responses during the interview revealed that they were more stressed." (via)

It even gets better ... if you happen to be a female diversity manager as "women leaders who engage in diversity-increasing behaviors in the highest organizational ranks are systematically penalized with lower performance ratings for doing so". Women "may increase their own chances of advancing up the corporate ladder by actually engaging in a very low level of diversity-valuing behavior" (via). In other words, "some" diversity is okay, but please not too much. The fact that, in comparison, male diversity managers are taken more seriously than female ones is ironic as it is exactly companies with this sexist buddy culture that need professional diversity management. Otherwise the whole "ethics and diversity statement blah blah" is only a show, nothing of substance and certainly not sustainable. And then it is time for a diversity manager to say "Bye-bye, mein lieber Herr, auf Wiedersehen, mein Herr. Es war sehr gut, mein Herr. Und vorbei. Du kennst mich wohl, mein Herr. Ach, lebe wohl, mein Herr. Du sollst mich nicht mehr sehen, mein Herr."

Sunday, 14 February 2016

"At National Geographic, we know that love takes many forms. Passion for the planet, lust for learning, natural instincts, and good old-fashioned romance—we celebrate them all."National Geographic

"Each Valentine’s Day I ask photographers to share one of their photographs that they feel captures love. And every year I am rewarded with powerful examples of how love can be seen and felt in a still image. This Valentine’s Day seven National Geographic photographers shared images of love in its many forms—familial love, romantic love, companionship, and love in the face of hatred. These images and their stories show that love can be found anywhere—from the most conflict-ridden places on Earth to the warmth and safety of a bed in the smallest of towns—captured in a single frame."Jessie Wender, senior photo editor

Romantic relationships between Israelis and Palestinians are taboo, dangerous, and rare. I began filming Sami, a West Bank Palestinian, and Lior, an Israeli-Yeminite Jew, while working on a broader project on Israeli-Palestinian love stories, with fellow photographer/filmmaker Ed Ou. They live with their six children in a one-bedroom apartment that Sammy built. Late at night, once the children have fallen asleep, the couple stays up talking and watching movies. Then, before falling asleep, Lior switches to a channel that broadcasts Muslim prayers. This is to protect her children and husband as they sleep. In the morning, before the rest of the family wakes up, Lior reads Jewish prayers, also to protect them. “Islam and Judaism—the Quran and the Torah—are basically the same thing,” she says. “In our house we have both the Quran and the Torah. Both of these books were given by God.”
Kitra Cahana

Time passes so quickly. I can’t remember the exact date I took this picture, but I know that I should. It was taken at the home of my grandmother in Arizona, and it was one of the last photographs I took of her before she died. She was already well into her 90s, and I knew the photographs I took during that time would be my final memories of her—how she looked, what she wore, the light that emanated from her.
I watched her when she sat in her room and listened to the radio, when she would pick weeds in the garden outside, and at the kitchen table where she played solitaire.
This image was made after she had finished gardening in the early evening. The ambient light was almost gone but she still seemed to glow, her hands in particular. In one single moment her hands seem to reveal to me an entire lifetime of memories that were the sum of her whole life, the lives before her, and those to come. I saw my father, myself, and my child yet to be born. She gave me all the emotions one can have in a lifetime, originating and culminating in love.
Erika Larsen

“D” and “O,” from Saint Petersburg, Russia, were beaten because they dared to walk hand in hand down a street near their home. “After the attack, I felt even more strongly how dear D is to me and how scary the thought that I could lose her,” O wrote. “The worst thing that I felt was an absolute inability to protect the one I loved—or even myself. Yes, now I look back on the street and look at every passing male as a possible source of danger. But every time, now, when I’m in the street, when I take her by the hand, I do it consciously, it is my choice. ‘D, hold my hand, this is my reward for your courage.’”
Meeting D and O and hearing their story touched me deeply. Like many other stories for my project “Where Love Is Illegal,” harrowing accounts often ended with beautiful illustrations of the strength of love and the power of choosing.
Four weeks ago, on a beautiful summer’s day on the shore of a lake in New Zealand, I reached out my hand to my bride and read to her my wedding vows, the origin of which only she knew: “Aude, take my hand as a sign of my commitment to return the love you have shown me, to support you as you’ve supported me—through sickness and health, wealth and poverty, doubt and success, I choose you.”
Robin Hammond

"Make love not war." A beautiful proposal of love to oppose war, as an opposite of war, as a solution that may heal and prevent war. But sometimes love seems to cause conflict as much as it prevents it—each side has their loved ones and they fight for their own, their beliefs, their tribe and country. Terrible things may then happen because of this love: People may be killed, lives may be ruined, populations displaced and communities destroyed. But still it seems war cannot destroy love.
This woman was raped during one of the myriad conflicts inside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where conflicts of ever changing names and causes have and continue to affect tens of millions of people. Rape is an act of violence, an opposite of love, a weapon of war. But if war cannot ultimately destroy love, then neither can rape.
After photographing many rape victims in Congo over the past several years, I’ve often asked if their idea of love is then changed. Do they understand it as well, in the same way, or does love become something foreign to them? Something not as pure? Or does love begin to mean something much more, something more precious, more necessary and life sustaining?"Michael Christopher Brown

Saturday, 13 February 2016

"Mixed Blood is a photographic and textual project portraying NYC and Beijing based families that include children with “mixed” races (sic), ethnicities, and cultures. Mixed Blood questions and diffuses the historical categorization process of race/ethnicity and focuses on connective, cross-cultural experiences. The portraits and accompanying narratives illustrate the varying relationships family members have with their backgrounds, cultural context and citizenship. This unifying of race (sic) and cultures within a family unit continues to influence the evolution of American and global identity today."CYJO

Born in 1974, CYJO (pronounced see-joe) is an American visual artist that works mainly in the photographic medium but also with text and video. She is most known for her KYOPO Project (2004-2009), a photographic and textual project about American immigration and identity through the lens of the Korean ancestry. Over 200 people explore their relationships with their ancestral culture and the other cultures they embody through citizenship or life experiences. (literally via)

"what I find intriguing about these families is that they defy the border and racial conflicts that we read about or may have experienced. although there can be some complexities that hint at the tensions and differences from the power of heritage, these portraits and narratives illustrate how their love naturally crosses boundaries."CYJO

All members of the Huang Rierson family are fluent in three languages but have certain preferences depending on where and who they speak to. Both daughters prefer to speak Mandarin to each other because they find it easier while they speak English to their father and French to their mother. French is also the language of choice when they are having conversations at the dinner table (via).

Wednesday, 10 February 2016

"There were no black images of dignity, no images of beautiful black people. There was this big hole. I tried to fill it."Roy DeCarava

Self Portrait, Reflection (1949)

Woman on Train (1961)

Bill & Son (1962)

“One of the things that got to me was that I felt that black people were not being portrayed in a serious and in an artistic way.”Roy DeCarava (1982)

"Unlike many photographers of his day, Mr. DeCarava did not intend that his photos be viewed as visual documentation but rather as artistic expressions in their own right so that his images were, in his words, "serious," "artistic," and universally "human." Whether photographing the Scottish countryside or the heart of New York City, the deep connection he felt to the lives of people everywhere is evident in the integrity of his images. Among the many subjects his camera focused upon, he expressed an early desire to address the lack of artistic attention given to the lives of Black Americans, illuminating the aesthetic and human qualities of each individual life through the lens of his perceptions." (via)

Woman Resting, Subway Entrance, New York (1952)

Haynes, Jones, and Benjamin (1956)

"DeCarava took photographs of white people tenderly but seldom. Black life was his greater love and steadier commitment. With his camera he tried to think through the peculiar challenge of shooting black subjects at a time when black appearance, in both senses (the way black people looked and the very presence of black people), was under question." (via)

Roy DeCarava (1919-2009) was one of two black students at a high school for textile studies and one of a few at the Cooper Union of Art (with a scholarship to study art and architecture). Discouraged by the hostility of many white students there, he left and enrolled at Harlem Community Art Center after two years.
DeCarava trained to be a painter but soon turned to photography after using a camera to gather images for his printmaking. As a black painter, he would have faced limitations: "A black painter, to be an artist had to join the white world or not function - had to accept the values of white culture." He became "the founder of a school of African-American photography that broke with the social documentary traditions of his time."
DeCarava was an outspoken crusader for civil rights, a member of the Committee to End Discrimination Against Black Photographers (he once supported protest against Life magazine for having only one - Gordon Parks - black photographer on its staff). DeCarava felt that "his pictures would speak louder as a record of black life if they abandoned the overtly humanist aims". Roy DeCarava was an artist who treated photography as a fine art and turned Harlem into his canvas (via).

from the book "The Sweet Flypaper of Life"

“I want to photograph Harlem through the Negro people. Morning, noon, night, at work, going to work… talking, kidding… in the home, in the playground, in the schools… I do not want a documentary or sociological statement, I want a creative expression, the kind of penetrating insight and understanding of Negroes which I believe only a Negro photographer can interpret.”
Roy DeCarava (via, via)

Marchers talking (1963)

Mississippi Freedom Marcher, Washington, DC (1963)

On the photograph "Mississippi Freedom Marcher, 1963" (see above)
"In “Mississippi Freedom Marcher,” for example, even the whites of the shirts have been pulled down, into a range of soft, dreamy grays, so that the tonalities of the photograph agree with the young woman’s strong, quiet expression. This exploration of the possibilities of dark gray would be interesting in any photographer, but DeCarava did it time and again specifically as a photographer of black skin. Instead of trying to brighten blackness, he went against expectation and darkened it further. What is dark is neither blank nor empty. It is in fact full of wise light which, with patient seeing, can open out into glories." (via)

Five Men (1964)

On the photograph "Five Men, 1964" (see above)“This moment occurred during a memorial service for the children killed in a church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1964. The photograph shows men coming out of the service at a church in Harlem.” The “men were coming out of the church with faces so serious and so intense that I responded, and the image was made.”
Roy DeCarava, 1990

Saturday, 6 February 2016

"In the United Kingdom and Ireland the words "trousers", or "slacks", were historically used for women's trousers."Wikipedia

"I’ll come back in slacks and if he puts me in jail I hope it will help to free women forever of anti-slackism."Helen Hulick

Above: Helen Julick in the slacks she wore to court.

In 1938, kindergarten teacher Helen Hulick made headlines when she testfied against two men accused of burglarising her home ... wearing trousers in court. Judge Arthur S. Guerin rescheduled her testimony and told her to wear a dress next time she appeared in court.

"You tell the judge I will stand on my rights. If he orders me to change into a dress I won't do it. I like slacks. They're comfortable."
Helen Hulick, 10 November, 1938

Five days later Hulick returned to court in slacks; The Los Angeles Times reported (15 November 1938):

In a scathing denunciation of slacks — which he prosaically termed pants — as courtroom attire for women, Guerin yesterday again forbade Helen Hulick, 28, kindergarten teacher, to testify as a witness while dressed in a green and orange leisure attire.

Guerin: "The last time you were in this court dressed as you are now and reclining on your neck on the back of your chair, you drew more attention from spectators, prisoners and court attaches than the legal business at hand. You were requested to return in garb acceptable to courtroom procedure.
Today you come back dressed in pants and openly defying the court and its duties to conduct judicial proceedings in an orderly manner. It's time a decision was reached on this matter and on the power the court has to maintain what it considers orderly conduct.
The court hereby orders and directs you to return tomorrow in accepted dress. If you insist on wearing slacks again you will be prevented from testifying because that would hinder the administration of justice. But be prepared to be punished according to law for contempt of court."

Hulick: "Listen, I've worn slacks since I was 15. I don't own a dress except a formal. If he wants me to appear in a formal gown that's okay with me.
I'll come back in slacks and if he puts me in jail I hope it will help to free women forever of anti-slackism." (via)

Hulick was given a five-day sentence and sent to prison.

Above: Helen Hulick (wearing a jail-issued dress) with her attorney William Katz and notary Jeanette Dennis

The Los Angeles Times continued:

"After being divested of her favorite garment by a jail matron and attired in a prison denim dress, Miss Hulick was released on her own recognizance after her attorney … obtained a writ of habeas corpus and declared he would carry the matter to the Appellate Court."

Hundreds of protest letters were sent to the courthouse, the Appellate Division overturned Guerin's contempt citation, and Hulick was free to wear slacks to court. When she came back to court a couple of months later, however, she wore a dress. She had made her point (via).

Above: Hulick dressed up for the followup court appearance on 17 January, 1939 (this photograph was published in the Los Angeles Times on 18 January, 1939)

Monday, 1 February 2016

"Most athletic footwear designed for women is adapted from athletic footwear designed for men" ... although the anatomy of women's feet differs from that of men's feet. Anatomy and the fact that more and more women are running marathons and hence are "attractive customers" (in the U.K., for instance, women's participation in marathon races increased by 12% while men's participation decreased by 13%) are the reasons why - after three years of development and 100 prototypes - Adidas has now introduced the "PureBoost X", a running shoe designed and developed for women.

Research on differences between men's and women's feet started about twenty years ago. Improving women's athletic gears, however, is still a research field that is neglected - particularly in comparison to research on men's equipment.

"It’s only lately [in sportswear development] that if you have 200 subjects, that you have 100 female and 100 male. Typically you have 200 males." Benno Nigg, professor emeritus of kinesiology

Women's feet tend to have narrower heels and higher arches than men's feet. According to motion-capture research carried out by Adidas, they also experience more expansion in the forefoot and midfoot as there is more movement in the Achilles area around the heel. The running shoe developed with women in mind has a sock-like mesh upper that is not entirely attached to the sole to make sure there is more open space around the woman's arch (via, via, via).

About Me

This weblog is about diversity and inclusion. It is not about "managing" diversity and "coping mechanisms" at the workplace only but about different aspects of diversity (all dimensions, i.e., age, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, disability) in art, marketing, music, sports, health, literature, urban planning, language, etc. We encounter diversity and attitudes to it everywhere in society. Limiting discussions and good practices to aspects related to the workplace may be, well, too limiting.

I have been working in the fields of diversity and human resources for many years. I also work as a university lecturer at the Department of Business Education and Development, University of Graz, Austria.

One project we are currently working on is "Graz. The Inclusive City." It is about raising awareness for how to turn a city into an inclusive city and collecting ideas. The weblog is in English (mostly) and German (sometimes, in fact, whenever postings refer to the city of Graz). If you are interested:

Please note

The images/photos (i.e. all material not originated by the author of this blog) here on "Diversity is beautiful" are the property of their respective owners. Their use here does not imply that you may use them for any purpose other than for a similar informational, inspirational or educational use.

If you find any content here that belongs to you and you want it down or has not been properly attributed, please contact: laura[AT]moazedi[DOT]org